Ice-flake machine



March 20, 1951.

F. w. KNOWLES ICE-FLAKE MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 3, 1945 FRANK W. KNOWLES 3maentor March 20, 1951 F. w. KNOWLES 2,546,005

ICE-FLAKE MACHINE Filed Dec. 3, 1945 2 Sheets-Shea; 2

3maentor Cittorneg Patented Mar. 20, 1951 'IGE-FLAKE MACHINE Frank W. Knowles, Seattle, Wash, assignor to Beltice Corporation, a corporation of Washington Application December 3, 1943, Serial No. 512,701

4 Claims. 1 o

The present invention relates to ice-flake machine and in more particular to a machine which makes ice flakes on a belt carried around a drum.

There are many prior art devices for the making of ice flakes, or sheets, on belts. Some of these devices are operative and some inoperative, it is believed, for their declared purpose. It is probable that only those prior art devices are operative that seal the inside of the belt from the outside thereof. This is so because if the inside is not sealed from the outside, then 'the vapors present in the atmosphere surrounding the device will condense, freeze on, and build up on the refrigeration surfaces of the drum and belt. This will reduce the rate of heat transfer and distort and ruin the belt. However, the use of seals for isolating the inside from the outside of the belt is expensive and of some difficulty.

Having in mind these defects of the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to construct an ice-flake machine employing a belt and drum that does not have a belt seal and which will not accumulate ice between the belt and drum. 7

A further object of the present invention is the provision in an ice-flake machine employing a belt and a drum of means for continuously removing frost or ice forming on the drum.

A further object of the present invention is the confining of the refrigeration act to that portion of the drum in contact with the belt in an ice machine employing such.

The above mentioned defects of the prior art and these objects are attained by refrigerating a rotatable drum, placing around the drum an endless belt that is longer than the circumference of the drum, heating the outside portion of the drum not in contact with the belt, and shielding the inside of the heated portion from the refrigerant.

An ice-flake machine embodying these characteristics is hereinafter described in detail and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, where- Figure l is a perspective View of a device embodying the present invention.

Figure 2 is a sectional view on the line 2-2 of Figures 1 and 3.

Figure 3 is a sectional View on the line 33 of Figures 1 and 2.

In the drawings there .is shown a drum i mounted on and in a tank 2. The drum i may be refrigerated by any one of the well known agents and systems, preferably by direct expanhollow axle 4 is fixed against rotation in the tank walls and provided with suitable packing or seals, to allow the rotation of the drum on the conduit, or axle t, to prevent leakage of the refrigerant. The drum may be rotated by any suitable means such as the motor and gearing, and live axle 5. This live axle is bearing in a wall of the tank.

The belt 6 placed around the drum and in contact with a large part of the face thereof, may be of any suitable material such as a solid sheet of steel, wire mesh, or unconnected parallel wire strands. The belt is led away from and back to the drum by means of a roll I that is bearinged on the tank 2. The position of the bearings is made adjustable so that the tension on the belt may be varied. As shown in the drawing, the idler roll l is placed at the top of the tank and the drum is given clockwise rotation. Ice forming on the belt will break off from the belt as it leaves the drum, be carried along with the belt over the roll I and fall down the chute 8 placed in, under or alongside of the roll.

Water for freezing is supplied to the tank through the pipe 9. This pipe enters through the side of the tank and passes to the inside of the belt between the drum and the roll, and extends along the whole face of the drum. The pipe is provided therealong with a plurality of outlets I!) that may be directed both against the drum and the belt, or downwardly instead of as shown. If a wire or other foraminous belt is used the pipe may be placed outside of the belt and the openings arranged to deliver water through the belt and against the drum. This incoming water is warm enough to melt any ice that may have formed on the drum or belt. In order to confine this warm water to the free face of the drum, the open spaces at the edges of the belt and drum along the free portion of the belt and drum are filled with shields ll, l2 that fit between the drum and belt. These shields with. the drum and belt form a supply chamber for the incoming water and the water in this chamber will continuously defrost the drum and. belt.

Dissipation of this heat of the incoming water is reduced by insulating the outside portion of the free portion of the belt by bringing a part It ofthe tank wall close to this portion of the belt. The tank might be constructed without this inset "part and a separate insulated shield placed beside the belt. These constructions would be particularly important if an open work belt were to be used. The loss of heat to the refrigerant is reduced by placing in the drum and supported on the fixed axle Q an insulated shield M that is held close to the drum on the inside of the free face-portion. This shield l4 prevents the free access of the refrigerant to the inside of the free drum surface.

If the heat content of the incoming water is not sufiicient it may be specially warmed or an auxiliary heating coil [5 may be placed in the supply chamber. This coil is adapted to have steam or other heating medium passed there'- through.

Insulation is provided in the ends of the drum to prevent formation of ice thereon and on the edge of the belt.

When the drum is refrigerated and rotated so as to carry the belt therewith, and water is supplied to the tank through the supply pipe 9, a thin film of ice will form on the outer surface of the belt. This film, or sheet, will break off from the belt in various size sheets, or flakes as it leaves the drum because of the stresses set up in the ice by the change in curvature of the belt. This ice will be carried along the belt until it passes over the roll 7 Where it will fall down the chute 8. The second change of curvature of the belt as it passes to the roll 1 will further act to dislodge the ice from the belt. The upper edge of the chute may be used as a scraper.

Water entering the supply chamber formed by the outer free wall portion of the drum, the inner free side of the belt, and the end shields I I, I2 is supplied with a heat content sufficient to melt any ice which may be adhering thereto from the belt and drum. The water in the sup-- ply chamber overflows the top edges of the shields il, [2 into the tank 2 from which it is gradually withdrawn as it forms ice on the outer surface of the belt. The amount of ice to be removed in the supply chamber is small as the amount of water trapped between the drum. and belt will be small. In place of heating the incoming water, it may be desirable to increase the quantity flowing to a point where some must be wasted out of the tank, if the normal make up at a given temperature for the ice removed is not sufficient to de-ice the drum. The insulation in the ends of the drum prevents the formation of ice on the edges of the belt and the drum ends.

While the present device is particularly usable for refrigeration work, such as the forming of ice from water, it may also be used for the forming of solids by the addition of heat to a suspension or a solution. Solutions of salts such as sodium sulfate and sodium carbonate that have an inverted solubility curve, would be particularly susceptible to treatment for the removal of the salt by means of the present device. A straight evaporation of the liquid of a solution or a suspension may be carried out with the present device.

As shown in the drawings, the roll I is partially above the drum I. If the roll is lowered the level of the water in the plenum may be lowered so that the head of the water in the supply chamber may be somewhat balanced by the water in the tank. This will reduce the leakage or tendency to the leakage of the water between the edges of the shields i I, i2 and the belt.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A heat transfer device, comprising: a heat transfer surface, a belt to contact said surface, means for taking portions of said belt out of and back into contact with said surface, and means including a shield for forming with a portion of said surface out of contact with said belt and with said belt a supply chamber for material under treatment by such device.

2. A refrigeration device, comprising: a drum;

an endless imperforate belt around said drum and having a free face and a face in contact with said drum, the length of said belt being greater than the circumference of said drum so that a portion of said belt is out of contact with said drum; means for taking successive portions of said belt out of and back into contact with said drum to form engaged and disengaged portions of said drum and belt, said disengaged portion composed of an emanant portion and an entrant portion; means for refrigerating an engaged portion of said drum; means for maintaining a supply of liquid to be congealed in a position to immerse a disengaged portion of said drum and said entrant portion of said belt to melt material congealed thereon, the emanant portion of said belt being entirely above the level of such liquid supply and out of contact therewith; means for transferring liquid before congelation thereof from such supply to a position to immerse the free face of an engaged portion of said belt for congelation of the liquid; and means for removing the congealed liquid from said emanant portion of said belt.

3. A refrigeration device, comprising; a drum; an endless belt around and in contact with said drum, the length of said belt being greater than the circumference of said drum so that a portion of said belt is out of contact with said drum; means for taking successive portions of said belt out of and back into contact with said drum to form engaged and disengaged portions of said drum and belt; means for establishing a temperature differential between an engaged portion of said drum and a disengaged portion of said drum, said previous means comprising shields and a fluid supply conduit for supplying to and confining to such disengaged portion of said drum a fluid at a temperature high with respect to the temperature of said engaged portion of said drum to establish said temperature differential.

4. A refrigeration device, comprising: a drum; an endless belt around and in contact with said drum, the length of said belt being greater than the circumference of said drum so that a portion of said belt is out of contact with said drum; means for taking successive portions of said belt out of and back into contact with said drum to form engaged and disengaged portions of said drum and belt; means for establishing a temperature differential between an engaged portion of said drum and a disengaged portion of said drum, said previous means comprising means for re frigerating engaged portions of said drum,a shield for restricting refrigeration of disengaged portions of said drum, and a conduit for supplying to such disengaged portion of said drum a fluid at a temperature high with respect to the temperature of said engaged portion of said drum to establish said temperature differential.

FRANK W. KNOWLES.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,031,812 Barrett et al Feb. 25, 1935 2,054,074 Field Sept. 15, 1936 2,252,913 Baer Aug. 19, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 603,859 Germany Oct. 9, 1934 

